Sounders beginning Champions League play

Seattle knows little about opponent Caledonia AIA

Sounders rookie Cordell Cato doesn't know much about Caledonia AIA, even though he grew up in the club's home country of Trinidad.

Neither does Sounders coach Sigi Schmid, even though Caledonia is his club's opponent when it opens CONCACAF Champions League group play tonight at CenturyLink Field.

"They're probably (the CCL opponent) that we're going into the most blind because they are not in their season yet," Schmid said. "They are in their preseason; they haven't really played games. ... So we're in the midst of gathering information."

In that quest, the Sounders have turned to some of the same resources available to casual fans: the Internet, YouTube, word of mouth.

One person who can't provide much help is Cato, the 20-year-old Sounder who joined the team from Carenage, Trinidad, and played for a pair of clubs there: Defence Force and San Juan Jabloteh.

"They're from my homeland," he said. "I really don't know much about them — just a couple of players on their team. They did win some of the cups in the local league back home, so that's about it."

Caledonia qualified for its first Champions League appearance by winning the 2012 Caribbean Football Union Club Champions Cup. This year, it won three out of five domestic titles: the First Citizens Cup, the FA Trophy and the Lucozade Sport Goal Shield.

The club was founded in 1979 in the city of Malabar. It won the Trinidad and Tobago Cup in 2008.

"(In Trinidad) the main thing is you try to keep the ball, you try to pass the ball, maintain possession and build from there," Cato said. "Definitely they're going to try that. As I said, I don't know much about the team. They're just from my home, but I'm going to be as new to the team as everybody else."

One thing the Sounders know for sure is that every game in group play has heightened importance in this competition. Under a reworked format, the 2012-13 CCL begins with eight three-team groups, with each club playing the other home and away. After those four games, only the top finisher in each group will move through to the quarterfinals.

Also

Honduran midfielder Mario Martinez will join the Sounders on loan from Real Espana. Martinez, 23, is playing for Honduras in the ongoing London Olympics. ... Sounders Women defender Stephanie Cox of Gig Harbor will join the University of Puget Sound women's soccer coaching staff as an assistant. Cox, who is married to South Kitsap assistant basketball coach Brian Cox, said the announcement does not indicate an end to her playing career. She has 81 caps for the national team.